NEWTON'S OLDER HOUSES
NEWTON CENTRE • NEWTON HIGHLANDS • OAK HILL • CHESTNUT HILL
I
i
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2014
https://archive.org/details/pre1855newtonhou00unse
Newton Free Librar\
3 1323 01330 2616
PRE-1855 NEWTON HOUSES REMAINING IN 1983
Newton Centre, Newton Highlands, Oak Hill, and Chestnut Hill
Publication 14
Newton Historical Society
The Jackson Homestead
527 Washington Street
Newton, Massachusetts 02158
© Newton Historical Society at the Jackson Homestead
CREDITS
Architectural Survey
History
Barbara Thibault
Thelma Fleishman
Cover: View of Newton Centre from Chestnut Hill.
Lithograph from Plan of Chestnut Hill. 1 856.
Cover and Interior Design: Peggy Pomposini
Printing: Roberts Printing Company
The Newton Historical Society extends special thanks to David Webster for
donating the talents and resources of Graphics etcetera.
FOREWORD
Some time in the early 1 970s, when
domestic architecture was still the
interest of the few, the Chairman of the
Historical Committee of the Friends of
the Jackson Homestead, Dorothy Bates,
became aware of the many buildings of
historical and architectural interest
scattered through the streets of the city
To bring to the notice of other
Newtonians this hitherto neglected
aspect of their cultural heritage, she
initiated the project which was to
produce Newton 's Older Houses. The
first booklets did Indeed generate a new
interest in, and awareness of, the built
environment. They were directly
responsible for the creation of the Upper
Falls Historic District and the publication
by the Historical Commission of a
complementary series on Newton's
Nineteenth Century Architecture.
Choosing 1 855 as the cut-off date
because of a detailed map published in
that year, Mrs. Bates, assisted by Ruth
Cannard (then Director of the
Homestead) co-ordinated the activities
of groups of "house detectives", and
compiled and edited six booklets
between 1971 and 1978. Newtonville,
which appeared in 1 980, was brought to
completion by Anna Frager, and the
current publication, the first under the
auspices of the Newton Historical
Society (successor to the Friends) is the
last in the series.
Our task has been made easier by
knowing what information lies where,
and we are grateful to those who, over
the years, discovered sources which in
the beginning were not always obvious
or easily available. In addition to the
early records of Newton, we have used
those of the Colony, Middlesex County,
and some surrounding communities.
Nevertheless information has
sometimes been too sparse or too
ambiguous to interpret with confidence,
and we hope that future researchers will
regard this work as a beginning and find
the answers and close the gaps m both
the general history and those of the
houses.
We were helped by many people in
many ways: Susan Abele, Kae and John
Bowes, Joseph Cancellieri, Lynette
Dennis, Frederick C. Detwiller, Anna
Frager, Helen Heyn, Jean Husher,
Priscilla Ritter, Elizabeth Rubin and the
Reference Staff at the Mam Branch of
the Newton Free Library, Duscha Scott
and David Webster. We thank them all.
Authors' Note
Where possible, modern street and
place names have been used, but it is
important to keep in mind that while
today's roads may correspond to, they
are not Identical with, the old highways.
Similarly, except in rare cases,
definitions of property lines are highly
tentative. The Plan of Newton in 1700
compiled by Francis Jackson to
accompany his 1 854 History of Newton
was a praiseworthy attempt to locate old
estates on a then up-to-date map.
However, he used as a basis the survey
made in 1 831 , since when the shape of
the map of Newton has changed
considerably, altering the relative
positions of many physical features.
Thus the plan has been used as a guide
only, and information derived from it has
been marked with an asterisk.
Whenever possible occupations of
the owners have been given; if some of
the designations seem quaint, for
example "milk", it is because they
appear thus in the Newton Directory
Architectural descriptions are
confined to external features of the
buildings, which, with one exception,
are private homes and not open to the
public^
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In Newton Centre, Newton
Highlands. Oak Hill, and Chestnut Hill
combined, fewer than seventy buildings
shown on the 1 855 map may still be
seen. This is somewhat less than half of
the number originally depicted, which
Itself was somewhat low considering
that the area concerned represented
approximately a quarter of a town that
had a population of just over 5.000.
Even today much of this part of Newton,
particularly to the south, is less densely
populated than the rest of the city, a
result of development patterns that
started taking shape as far back as the
eighteenth century for which a variety of
causes can be suggested. Chief among
them are, perhaps, the nature of the soil,
much of which was too wet or too poor to
invite or sustain intensive cultivation; the
nature of the river, which in that part of
Its course was too sluggish to provide
sites for the generation of power such as
those which led to the development of
the villages at the upper and lower falls;
and the absence of important highway
intersections which might have attracted
concentrations of settlement such as
those that grew at the crossroads in
West Newton and at Newton Corner.
Thus, even Newton Centre, for a brief
period the center of the town in fact as
well as name, gradually lost its
pre-eminence as the focus of local
activity shifted to the west.
All of present day Newton was
included in the original grant of the
General Court to Watertown. However,
in 1634, when the Reverend Thomas
Hooker and his followers, who made up
a large and influential group of settlers
in the New Town (Cambridge),
complained of a shortage of land there,
the Court added to that town an
extensive area south of the Charles
River encompassing Newton, Brighton,
and Brookline. When, despite this, the
Reverend moved off to Connecticut, the
Brookline section (then [\/luddy River)
reverted to Boston. Brighton and
Newton remained part of what, in 1 636,
became Cambridge and were
henceforward referred to as "the south
side of Charles River" or "over the
water" to distinguish that area from the
original portion of town.
Although much of this newly
acquired territory had previously been
given to deserving individuals by the
General Court, there were still several
thousand acres to be distributed by the
Cambridge Proprietors, and a complex,
if temporary, land pattern developed.
Along with the many large individually
owned holdings, there were about a
dozen "open fields" in which those who
qualified were alotted additional strips
(usually about six acres) of marsh,
upland, meadow or woodland. There
was much buying and selling and
consolidating of estates, but with some
exceptions the owners continued to live
north of the river. As the 1630s wore on,
a small group of permanent settlers
established themselves in the vicinity of
Newton Corner near the Brighton line.
From there settlement spread along the
trodden ways until, by 1656, these
families, now numbering about fifteen,
finding the journey to the meeting
house on the other side of the river
inconvenient, started holding separate
religious services. Within a few years
they built their own meeting house and
soon after buried their first minister in
the burying ground surrounding It (at the
corner of Centre and Cotton Streets). By
that time they had freed themselves from
paying for the support of the ministry in
Cambridge and their new precinct had
come to be known as Cambridge
Village. Complete political separation
was achieved in 1 688. With
independence came the obligation to
deliver the services formerly provided
by the parent community and within the
next decade and a half these were
housed in facilities which either were, or
on available evidence seem to have
been, close to the meeting house.
The first was the pound. Stray
animals were no small problem and the
office of poundkeeper was no sinecure:
thus it was convenient to have the
incumbent living nearby. Newton's first
poundkeeper was John Spring,
appointed in 1689, who lived on Mill
Street not far from the meeting house. It
is fair to assume, therefore, that the
pound was built in the neighborhood. By
the end of the century there were
enough permanent inhabitants to
warrant a training field for the militia and
a school. Both were accommodated on
land abutting the burying ground. The
stocks, built in 1 694, were, for a time at
least, kept in the school house where
they were "forever to hand," if not
always exposed to the public view.
Thus did Newton's first center come
into being. Roads were laid out to "the
falls" and to the east, and this nucleus,
no different from those in many other
New England settlements, seemed
permanent. When a new building was
needed for the meeting house, there
was no thought of moving it elsewhere; it
was erected across Centre Street,
probably on Spring's land. However,
what had been convenient when the few
settled families lived in relatively close
proximity became less so as more
ground was broken and new homes
were established further away. A second
school house was built near Oak Hill in
Notice of a stray pig, 1805.
1 703 and in 1 712 six families, living In
what would later become the Brook
Farm area of West Roxbury, won the
right to pay their ministerial dues to
Roxbury where they had for some time
been attending meeting. A more acute
crisis arose when a petition was
presented to the General Court
requesting that either the meeting house
be moved to a more accessible spot or
that the town be split into two precincts
and a second meeting house built. The
Court ordered that a new site be found
and, to avoid further dissension, a
surveyor was appointed to determine
the center of the town. This was found to
be very close to the corner of Centre and
Homer Streets, and one and a half acres
of land was bought there from Nathaniel
Parker. At the same time two new roads
were laid out: one (Homer Street)
leading to the west part of town and
another (possibly Morton or some now
discontinued path close to It) to make
the meeting house accessible to the
northwest. Thus, in 1716, Newton
Centre was born.
The land which was bought for the
meeting house was at one time part of
the estate of Jonathan Hyde who with
his brother Samuel came from England
and started buying property on the
south side of the river in 1 647. Between
them they accumulated hundreds of
acres which they later divided, Samuel
choosing to live east of Centre Street
towards Newton Corner and Jonathan in
Newton Centre near the pond, where he
eventually owned some 300 acres. His
estate extended from Centre to beyond
Walnut Street and from Crystal Lake to
somewhere north of Commonwealth
Avenue. Before he died he parceled out
his holdings among his many children.
What became the meeting house lot
went to his daughter Anne who sold it to
Nathaniel Parker, Newton's first
entrepreneur who, in time, owned the
water rights at Upper Falls, the saw mill
on the Brookline line, and was the
town's first licensed inn-holder.
The meeting house was completed
on the new site in 1 721 . The school
house was built shortly thereafter
(probably on the north side of Homer
Street) and was known as "the School
near the Meeting House" or the Central
School House. It Is difficult to pinpoint
the times at which other town facilities
were moved to the new center.
The stocks, used to punish bad
behavior during divine service, were
re-erected a short distance from the
meeting house and were still there at the
end of the century. The pound probably
remained at its original site until 1 755
when a new one was built (in stone) on
land given by Noah Wiswall on Cypress
Street, where it remained at least until
1 855. The most vexing question,
however, concerns the training field,
now the Newton Centre Green or
Common. In the 1 850s when Francis
Jackson was writing his History of
Newton, the land was traditionally
supposed to have been given by
Jonathan Hyde some time before he
died m 1711, and Jackson suggests that
a part could have come from a member
of the Wiswall family. A closer study
suggests other possibilities, but at this
time all that is certain is that it was as
town property that it was chosen as the
site for the "noon houses" in 1 730.
These were shelters where
churchgoers, unable to return home
between services, could rest and keep
6
relatively warm. The foundations of at
least one of these austere buildings
were still visible in Jackson's time. For a
brief period during the 1 760s
consideration was given to putting a
workhouse on the town land. At the end
of the century the powder house, which
stood until 1849, was built at the corner
of Lyman Street.
While the public facilities were being
concentrated about the geographical
center of the town, Newton's first
villages were growing up elsewhere. In
West Newton, where the roads from
Watertown, Natick and Waltham
intersected, and particularly after the
completion of the Waltham bridge in
1 761 , a sizable community was
developing, and, in 1 763 these
residents and many from Upper and
Lower Falls began agitating for a
separate precinct. Although this was
voted down by the town, a meeting
house was built with private funds. In the
following year came the first of a series
of annual petitions to have winter
preaching in the west paid for by the
town. Despite initial denials, the
inevitable happened in 1 778 when the
Second Precinct, or West Parish, was
established by order of the General
Court. Three years later the Baptists,
having won the battle to be released
from paying for the support of the
established minister, built their own
meeting house in the Centre.
As a consequence, when the First
Precinct Meeting House had to be
rebuilt in 1 806, it was financed, not by
taxing the whole town as its
predecessors had been, but by
assessing the Proprietors of the First
Parish, and a time came when they, and
particularly "the ladies who complained
bitterly of the dirt brought m on the feet
of the independent voters" no longer
wished to have town meetings and other
public business take place exclusively in
their building. Thus in 1832 the First
Parish informed the town that its
meeting house would be available only
"in proportion with the other four
meeting houses in the Town." Apart
from the West Parish and the Baptists
there were St. Mary's Episcopal Church
in Lower Falls (1814) and the Unitarian
Society's building in Upper Falls, then
being used by the Methodists. From the
point of view of the development of the
Centre, this was one more link in the
chain of events leading to the transfer of
town business to West Newton.
Subsequent town meetings were held
in the Baptist and Second Parish
meeting houses, and in 1834, after
many votes and reconsiderations, it was
agreed that a town house should be built
in Newton Centre (shown on the 1848
map opposite the Baptist Meeting
House). In addition it was voted that a
contribution be made to the Fuller
Academy, about to be constructed in
West Newton, for the inclusion of a hall
of the same dimensions as the town
house so that meetings could be held
alternately in each section of the town.
This arrangement, which seems to have
worked well enough, was upset by the
early demise of the Academy, although
meetings continued to be held there
until the Normal School took over the
building. In 1 841 the whole unfortunate
subject was re-opened, complicated this
time by recurring petitions to the
General Court for a complete division of
the town.
First Precinct Meeting House
Jackson Homestead Collections
The ascendancy of West Newton had
increased in the few intervening years.
The advantages of having first the stage
coaches along Washington Street and,
from 1 834, the railroad, were in no way
offset by the construction of the
Worcester Turnpike. Too far south, with
stages at Upper Falls and in Brookline,
this road brought no obvious benefits to
the Centre.
The bitterness and intensity of the
debates in the years that followed —
such undignified behavior as the
clapping of hands, stamping of feet and
the use of the expression "all up" had to
be prohibited — are apparent even in
the businesslike reports of the town
meetings. Various locations for a new
town house were proposed, including
Newtonville. The East Parish, having
second thoughts, offered the use of its
basement — at a price. The matter was
finally resolved when the town bought
from the West Parish its old meeting
house and put it to use as a town house
with school rooms in the basement. In
1 849 the last town meeting was held in
Newton Centre. The town house was
moved onto the Common at the corner
of Langley Road, where, as Lyceum
Hall, it was used for meetings, lectures,
and "other secular gatherings." Moved
once more, this time down Langley
Road to Beacon Street, it served as a
livery stable until it burned down in
1876.
The issues of division and secession
were laid to rest too. The years of
agitation, proposals and counter
proposals ended with the annexation of
1 800 acres of Newton territory by
Roxbury and 600 by Waltham. Although
no longer the administrative nor the
geographical center of the town,
Newton Centre nevertheless proceeded
to develop a distinctive character of its
own.
In 1 829 the Newton Theological
Institution bought eightyTive acres just
south of the Common, including the
mansion house on what came to be
called Institution Hill, which had been
built by John Peck in the 1 790s. This
was the first of the important outside
educational institutions to locate in
Newton, and m time its presence
induced a number of theologians and
other scholars to move into the area.
They included Reverend Samuel R
Smith who wrote the history of Newton,
and the Reverends Ira Chase and Henry
Ripley for whom streets were named a
few years later.
In addition, in 1 852, the Woonsocket
Division of the New York and New
England Railroad extended its service
from Brookline, through Newton Centre,
to Needham. Initially this was, at best, a
mixed blessing, for along its single track
during the next decade were to run the
cars taking fill to the Back Bay, and it
was not until many years later that the
effects of a good passenger service to
Boston would be felt in the Centre.
Courtesy Franklin Trask Library, Andover Theological School
Nevertheless in the decade of the 1 850s
many new streets, among them Beacon,
Parker, Grafton, Pelham and Pleasant,
were laid out and others were
upgraded. The Newton Centre Tree
Club, the forerunner of the Improvement
Association (which would be
responsible for the acquisition of the
playground in the nineties) regraded
and planted the Common, thus carrying
on a tradition established by the town in
1 769, The Post Office opened about
1 827, the first store some thirteen years
later and the first engine house was built
on the Common in 1 837. Its location was
changed twice before the present site
was chosen for a fire house in 1 869.
In 1 855. the extension of Beacon
Street from the Centre to Waban Square
breached for the first time "the wide
expanse of territory, on all sides woody,
or broken or low" which stretched, in the
words of one who advocated division of
the town, "almost entire from the
southern boundary at Charles River to
the North." This separation from the
outlying villages had been one of the
drawbacks of having the town house in
Newton Centre. In earlier years the
Jackson Homestead Collections
Store and post office Newton
Centre
same physical barriers had dictated the
routes taken by the highways to the
meeting house which had had to pick
their way through a variety of natural
and man-made obstacles to get there.
Chief among these were the mill pond
and acres of swamp and meadow to the
south of It,
When, in 1664, John Spring built a
dam across Smelt (now Laundry) Brook,
he flooded a low-lying area of swamp
and bog at the confluence of two
streams, creating a pond a great deal
larger than the present day Bullough's
which took Its current shape only in the
1 890s. Grist mills were so important in
seventeenth century New England that
under common law anyone owning both
sides of a stream could flood land
without restriction in order to provide
enough power to keep the wheels
turning. Thus no deeds granting flowage
easements were necessary and there is
nothing to indicate the extent of the
original pond. Maps drawn over 100
years later suggest it covered the entire
site of the present city hall, and it may
have been a good deal larger. To the
southwest of the mill pond were many
Edwina Seeler
Cold Spring Swamp, 1983
acres of wetland, probably a mixture of
bog, swamp and meadow, of which
some remains in Cold Spring Park.
In the nineteenth century all or much
of this area was known as Alcock's
Swamp. Neither the identity of the owner
nor the extent of the property is certain.
Did it belong to George Alcock who,
possibly accompanied by a brother,
Thomas, came over with Governor
Winthrop and settled in Roxbury? He
practiced as a physician, but also held
various public offices and acted as
surveyor for the colony on a number of
occasions. But if the swamp were a
reward for his services, why is there no
mention of a grant in the colony
records? If he (or brother Thomas, who
settled in Dedham) bought it, why do the
proprietors' records not say so? The
only references that have so far come to
light are in land transactions of others, in
which Alcock's Meadow is mentioned as
abutting property in the areas where
Waban and Newton Highlands merge
and near Homer and Walnut Streets.
Could Alcock have owned ail the land
between these locations'?' Why
"meadow" m the 1600s and "swamp"
two centuries later"?* There was (and is) a
clear distinction between the two:
meadow lands were coveted for their
hay and usually alotted in small parcels,
while, generally speaking, swamps were
at that time held in common. There is no
record of a sale. Perhaps, because it
was unimproved, the land reverted to
the town and was divided among the
proprietors with other swamps in the
1660s.
What is certain is that by the
beginning of the eighteenth century
much of Cold Spring (or Alcock's)
swamp was owned by Joseph Fuller. He
was the son of the earliest settler in the
western part of town, and in 1 680 he
married Lydia, a daughter of Edward
Jackson who gave them twenty-three
acres of land in Newtonville. Joseph
extended his domain until it stretched
from Newtonville square to Beacon
Street and beyond. By the 1 790s the
property had passed through two
generations to his great-granddaughter
Sarah. She was married to General
William Hull after whose death she sold
fifteen acres to her daughter, Rebecca,
and her husband Dr. Samuel Clarke who
had an interest in the Boston Chemical
Company. The sale included land on
both sides of the (Cold Spring) brook
and the right to build a dam across it.
The resulting mill pond was used to
supply water power for the company's
factory, which ground drugs and made
"various acids, alkalis, camomils, etc ."
The building burned and when
replaced, it housed a leather factory
operated by Rufus Brackett. In 1855
Mrs. Clarke's property, including the
land on which the factory stood, as well
as many adjoining parcels, was bought
by the Newton Cemetery Corporation.
Dr. Clarke's mill pond is probably the
predecessor of the ornamental ponds
which feature so largely in the
cemetery's landscape.
In the process of expanding to the
south, Joseph Fuller bought fifteen
acres of what had been, and was still
known as, Mr. Haynes's Farm. John
Haynes came to Cambridge with
Reverend Hooker in 1632. A man of
wealth and ability, he immediately
became involved in the affairs of both
the town and the colony. In 1 634, while
he was serving as assistant, the General
Court granted him 1 000 acres and "the
great pond" (Crystal Lake) above the
falls on the east side of the Charles
River. His was only one of several grants
of land made in Newton that year but it
was by far the largest; and although it is
not possible to define the boundaries
with complete accuracy, the farm
certainly included part of Newton Centre
and much of Newton Highlands. Despite
being chosen Governor the following
year, Haynes followed Hooker to
Connecticut. When his daughter Ruth
married Samuel Wyllis, Haynes gave
them the Newton property; at least one
record, in 1 671 , refers to the Wyllis farm.
Haynes died in 1 654, and about that
time 300 acres, mostly fertile upland
which included the pond and the area
just south of Newton Centre square, was
bought by Thomas Wiswall who came
from nearby Dorchester. A devout man,
he was appointed to catechise the
children and became the first Elder of
the village church. One of his sons was
killed fighting the Indians and two others
settled elsewhere, but others of his
descendants remained in the vicinity for
many years and, although some of them
became Parkers and Longleys, the
pond, first called Mr. Haynes's Pond,
became Mr. Wiswall's. Thus it was
known until the Elder's great-grandson
gave land on the eastern shore to the
Baptists for their meeting house
(subsequent buildings were on the site
of the present Baptist Church) when it
became Baptist Pond. In the last quarter
of the nineteenth century "Crystal Lake"
came into use, a name coined, no
doubt, by a hopeful real estate
developer.
r
Luther Paul's farm in 1 856, originally part of the Wiswalls' portion of the
Haynes Farm. (For Silver Lake read Crystal Lake.)
City Engineering Department
14
The rest of the Haynes farm was
divided, possibly when Ruth Haynes
Wyllis died in the 1 680s, between her
two daughters, Mary Eliot and Mabel
Russell Woodbridge. Neither she nor
they ever lived in Newton and part, if not
all, of the property was rented by
Captain Thomas Prentice who used the
land but lived elsewhere in Newton. He
still occupied It when Mabel sold 100
acres of upland and meadow to two
Boston blacksmiths who built a house on
the west side of Centre Street towards
that part of the Sherborn Road that
became Clark Street. In 1 707 Mabel's
daughter Mabel Hubbard Woodbridge
sold another 1 00 acres, some of it wet
and in need of draining, to Samuel Petty
who built a house on the Dedham Road
near Stearns Brook. His house (which is
no longer there) was used as a
reference point by the surveyors of
highways and from a point near it one
road (which was subsequently relocated
as Elliot Street) ran to the river, and
another (Winchester Street) was laid out
to the south between the lands of John
Kennck and Samuel Truesdell. Petty's
land eventually was owned by
successive generations of Winchesters.
Before he left for Boston, Amasa, the
third and last, added three quarters of
an acre to the South (Winchester Street)
Burying Ground when the Proprietors
turned it over to the town in 1 834.
Each Wyllis sister's share consisted
of a number of parcels, not necessarily
contiguous: Mary Eliot's was divided
into at least four. She married Joseph
Eliot, brother of Newton's first minister
and son of the Reverend John Eliot, the
Apostle to the Indians. Their son, the
Reverend Jared Eliot, was a man of
many interests who, among other
things, introduced white mulberries into
Connecticut and experimented with the
extraction of iron ore from black
seasand. His mother gave him her 350
acres in 1712 and although he never
lived in Newton either, he joined his
tenant, Jonathan Green, in petitioning
for the relocation of the County Road
(Centre Street) which ran through his
land. When the property was sold to
John Hammond in 1 746 there was no
mention of any buildings so the first
house must date from this owner. It
stood on Centre Street, more or less
Thelma Fleishman
South Burial Ground, opened 1803
on Winchester Street
where the Worcester Turnpike would
cross it some 60 years later and where
Hammond's son-in-law John Marean,
and later Edward Mitchell, would keep a
tavern.
The Turnpike was built by a private
company in 1 808. It crossed into
Newton from Brookline at a point very
close to the old Sherborn Road, but
whereas the latter had from the late
1 600s wound its way along what are
now Florence, Jackson, Clark, Centre,
Woodward, Beacon and Washington
Streets to Lower Falls, the new highway
cut through the town in a straight line to
Upper Falls. It failed as a business
venture, and its proprietors were forced
to relinquish it to the communities
through which it passed. Newton's
share was surveyed by the county
commissioners and accepted by the
town in 1833.
The initial impact of the turnpike on
Newton Highlands was slight. When the
railroad went through forty-five years
later there was still no cohesive
community in the area and the local
station was called "Oak Hill," thus
identifying it with the vast, sparsely
populated area to the south. It was not
until the 1 870s that the residents of the
burgeoning railroad suburb chose the
name "Newton Highlands."
Jackson Homesleau Collections
Worcester Turnpike at Upper Falls
To the south of Haynes's farm was a
250 acre tract of land along the river,
once the property of Thomas Mayhew. A
mercer from Southampton in England,
he settled initially in fVledfield. In 1632 he
moved to Watertown where he built the
first non-tidal mill on the Charles and the
first of the bridges to cross the river
there. In addition he was active in local
and colonial affairs, and before he
settled on Martha's Vineyard, in 1 646,
he received several grants of land in
Newton and elsewhere. This particular
parcel boasted a variety of physical
features, ranging from the upland
surrounding Winchester Hill to the broad
wetlands, part peat, part gravel, of the
river's flood plain. The land was bought
by Ann and Richard Parker who built a
house at the foot of the hill not far from
the river. In 1 658 they sold it to John
Kenrick (b. 1605) who extended the
estate even further upstream towards
Cow Island. His family remained there
for nearly two centuries, with successive
generations of Johns and Calebs taking
active roles in local affairs. In 1 693
Brookline Street was laid out as far as
the land of Sergeant John Kenrick
(1 641 -1 721 ) and possibly continued
through his land to the river, although
this final section (Nahanton Street) was
not surveyed by the town until 1711.
Even then it was not an open way, as the
Kenricks were allowed to erect and
maintain two gates across it, a right that
still ran with the land 1 00 years later. It is
not clear when the (Kendrick Street)
bridge was built over the river, it was
possibly in the late seventeenth century
or the early eighteenth. Private bridges
were common at that time but became
less so as the burden of maintenance
increased. Kenrick's bridge was rebuilt
in 1 764, the cost being shared by the
towns of Newton and Needham. In the
1780s the John Kenrick (1 755-1 833)
who established the charitable fund still
administered to this day by the Board of
Aldermen, bought the Durant house
near Nonantum Hill and went to live
there. Almost a century later what had
been his share of the property was
included in Nathan Appleton's Boulder
Farm, while today, another hundred
years on, some of the land has been
developed by the Newton At 1 28
Industrial Park and some, both public
and private, is still open, much of it too
wet to build on. The rest of the land,
north of Nahanton Street, was sold after
the death of Caleb Kenrick in 1 820, A
number of owners followed, including
the Archdiocese of Boston which built
the Working Boys Home in the 1 890s. A
substantial amount of this, too, remains
open as a city park.
Oak Hill is the second highest hill in
Newton, eleven feet lower than its near
neighbor. Bald Pate, but whereas the
latter gave its name only to two now
almost vanished meadows, Oak Hill still
designates a large, if ill-defmed, area in
the southern section of Newton. No part
of It seems to have been included in any
of the early grants made by the General
Court, but by the mid-seventeenth
century the Cambridge Proprietors had
alotted or sold many parcels of open
and undeveloped land there. Actual
settlement, however, did not begin until
the 1 690s, despite the fact that by the
standards of the day it was not
inaccessible, being traversed by the
road from Watertown to Dedham, the
earliest highway in Newton on record.
When the effort of the General Court
to satisfy Reverend Hooker deprived the
inhabitants of Watertown of their territory
on the south side of the river, they were
given permission to seek out "some
convenient place" as compensation.
They found it two and a half miles above
the falls, and Dedham was established
on both sides of the river in 1 635. While
the new township was being laid out and
the houses built, there was much
coming and going between the two
communities, and thus it came about
that the first road through Newton was
opened by men from Watertown and
Dedham, the latter "mending" the
section north of Mr. Haynes's farm in
1 636. The route, which was the flattest
and the driest if not the most direct, was
confirmed by Cambridge Town Meeting
in 1650.
Jackson Homestead Collections
Oak Hilt, early in this century.
18
Looking at the Dedham marshes
today It is easy to understand the
difficulties early surveyors had
establishing exact boundaries. In 1637
Roxbury demanded compensation
"because Dedham did shorten them,"
and when the line with Cambridge was
run in 1 649 another error was
discovered: part of Bald Pate Meadow,
in which at least four persons had been
granted land by Dedham really lay in
Cambridge. The area in question was
probably about 600 acres. Restitution
was made and Cambridge advertised
the sale of "the land recovered from
Dedham and lying in common." Edward
and John Jackson, Thomas Danforth
and Edward Goffe, were the four
purchasers. The Jacksons were among
the first settlers in Newton and the
names of both appear with great
frequency in Cambridge records as well
as those of the colony Both worked hard
to establish Newton as a separate
community but neither lived long
enough to see it happen. They
distributed their shares of the recovered
land among their descendants, and in
addition Edward left some thirty acres to
the town to provide the firewood that
was part of the minister's salary. Fencing
and ditching the south ministerial
woodlot became a town responsibility,
and every year a day was appointed for
residents to cut the wood. After Newton
ratified the legislation separating church
and state, the lot became the property of
the East Parish, which sold it in several
parcels in the 1 850s and 1 860s. Part,
albeit a small one, remains, virtually
untouched as a restricted wetland,
adjacent to the South High School tennis
courts.
Thomas Danforth served at various
times as deputy governor, assistant,
recorder of deeds for Middlesex County,
Cambridge town clerk, clerk to the
Board of Overseers of Harvard, and in
several local positions. He sold his
portion of the recovered land to John
Ward. Part of Goffe's share was
eventually owned by Jonathan Hyde.
Ward and Hyde also owned large tracts
in the Great Meadow which lay to the
north of Bald Pate. Some 1 50 acres in
extent it reached almost to the Dedham
road (Centre Street), which took a large
westward curve to avoid it. Both these
meadows as well as Stake Meadow
(which took Its name from the stake
marking the right-angled turn in the
Newton-Brookline line) and others,
possibly including some whose names
have not come down to us, were part of
the South Meadow Brook drainage area
which covered almost 1800 acres, most
of It virtually unbuildable until the bed of
the brook, and thus the ground-water
level, was lowered early in the twentieth
century.
To the south of Great Bald Pate
Meadow lies Little Bald Pate Meadow
which is part of the wetland system
traversed by Saw Mill Brook. The brook
was known also, at times, as Pond Brook
after one of its sources, Hammond's
Pond, or Palmer Brook after John
Palmer who came to live there in the
1 760s. The name used today derives
from a sawmill built shortly after
1683 by Erasomon Drew and
bought by Nathaniel Parker in 1 726.
Because it was located right on the
Newton-Brookline line, the mill was used
as a reference point by the early
perambulators; now that both it and "the
dam apertainmg" have gone, a stone
bound marks the spot.
20
There seems to have been at least
one other dam on the mainstem of the
brook: it was probably not a source of
power but part of a system of dams and
ditches used from an early date for
controlling the water in the meadow.
Much of Little Bald Pate Meadow is
no longer part of Newton. It was here in
1 71 2, that the SIX families permitted to
worship in Roxbury lived. In 1 837, 1 800
acres, including the part that would
shortly become Brook Farm, were set off
to Roxbury
The street pattern in the south was
established early and has changed less
than those in other parts of the city In
addition to Dedham Street, Dudley and
Vine, Brookline and Cypress were there
by 1 71 1 , the year Greenwood Street
was laid out. The houses which clung to
the dry solid ground close to the
highways increased in number only
slightly in the next century and a half.
This was due in part at least to the rough
and stony soil which, alternating with
muck and peat, made it necessary for
farms to be large to be productive.
Because, until very recently,
development has passed them by a
larger proportion of eighteenth century
structures remains there than elsewhere
in the city
In 1 641 Thomas Parrish was granted
1 00 acres "on the left side of the greate
playne toward Mr. Haynes his farme . . .
on the southwest side of Chestnut Hill,"
(now Waban Hill). Parrish either
returned to or remained in England,
because in 1 658 the land was sold
through an agent to James and Thomas
Prentice, Sr. They were brothers, but
little IS known of them other than that
they took some part in town affairs. Their
property lay "between the two brooks"
(Edmands and Hammond, that is
between Cotton and Lyman Streets) and
extended westwards from the hill to
Centre Street. In the nineteenth century
part of it was owned by Marshall Rice
who was Newton's last town clerk, from
1846 to 1873, and drew the first plans
for the Newton Cemetery and for many
of the early subdivisions. On either side
of his house (said to have been built m
1 742 by Henry Gibbs) were fish ponds.
Hammond Brook ran through the more
southerly of the two, in which, according
to General Hull's grandson, speckled
trout could be caught.
To the northeast of the Prentice
brothers was land granted by the
Cambridge Proprietors to Elder Edmund
Frost. It is not clear when the grant was
made, nor when he sold forty-five acres
to Edward Jackson, but both
transactions were early enough for
Jackson's daughter and son-in-law,
Hannah and John Ward, to build the
so-called "garrison house" there shortly
after their marriage in 1 650. The house
stood on Ward Street until it was taken
down by Deacon Ephraim Ward in 1822.
John Ward moved to Newton from
Sudbury Massachusetts, at the time of
his marriage, becoming one of its most
influential inhabitants. In 1 682 he was
chosen to transcribe the town records
into the new book, was the town's first
deputy to the General Court, and served
in many other capacities. He expanded
his holdings, both to the west and the
southeast and divided his estate among
his children before he died. Because the
soil consisted of fertile loam, relatively
small parcels of land could be farmed
profitably; at least two generations of
nineteenth century Wards were
1 . John Spring's Mill Pond (Bullough's
Pond and City Hall Ponds)
2. First Meeting House (Cotton Street
Cemetery)
3. Chestnut Hill (Waban Hill)
4. Alcock's Meadow (a. Newton
Cemetery b. Cold Spring Park)
5. Town Center, 1714
6. Cambridge Hill (Chestnut HIM)
7. Great Meadow (South High School)
8. Stake Meadow
9. South Ministerial Woodlot
10. Great Bald Pate Meadow (Kennard
Conservation Area)
1 1 . Kenrick Farm (a. Novitiate Park b.
MDC Reservation)
12. Little Bald Pate Meadow (a.: Bald
Pate Meadow Conservation Area, b.
and c: Saw Mill Brook Conservation
Areas)
22
successful market gardeners. By 1 855 a
number of othier names appear on the
map, but the last of the Ward properties
were subdivided and sold only at the
beginning of this century
Elder Frost sold the rest of his
Chestnut Hill property to Captain
Thomas Prentice, who commanded the
Middlesex cavalry troop in King Philip's
war and later became deeply involved in
every aspect of town affairs. It was here,
where Prentice's land met the property
of Samuel Hyde's descendants and that
of the Wards, that the Cochituate
Aqueduct was constructed in the 1 840s,
Since 1 795 the Boston Aqueduct
Company had provided Boston with
water, most of which came from Jamaica
Pond. Bythe 1 830s this arrangement
was no longer satisfactory, and following
a number of studies it was decided to
bring "pure water" to a reservoir on
Beacon Hill from Long Pond on the
Natick-Framingham line. The pond's old
Indian name, Cochituate, was adopted
when ground was broken for the
aqueduct in 1 846. The conduit enters
Newton just above Lower Falls, makes
Its way through Waban, the Highlands,
and Newton Centre, sometimes above
ground, sometimes below, and its
construction seems to have caused no
major problems until it reached the
Waban Hill area. This was the most
thickly settled part of Newton that the
aqueduct passed through and
presented the greatest difficulties: a
tunnel over 24,000 feet long had to be
cut through hard porphyritic rock. Work
began at both ends in November 1846
and continued, day and night, in eight
hour shifts, until the two sections met
five months later. The workers, many of
them immigrant Irish, lived close by in a
temporary village which sprang up,
uninvited, on land belonging to John
Kenrick (1 801-1 870) at the foot of
Nonantum Hill. During construction
seven shafts were sunk through the rock
and seven steam engines, pumping
constantly, were needed to remove the
ground water. When all was completed
five of the neighboring households
found that their wells had run dry
Litigation ensued, resulting in the
formation, under the aegis of the City of
Boston, of the Newton Aqueduct
Company which sunk a well, built a
small reservoir and laid pipes to cisterns
on the affected farms. This small system
was one of two or three constructed in
Newton before the introduction of the
municipal water supply in the mid
1870s. On emerging from the Newton
tunnel the Cochituate aqueduct passed
through yet another tunnel before
reaching the Brookline reservoir. The
Bradlee and Lawrence basins in
Chestnut Hill were not built until the level
of Lake Cochituate was raised to
increase the volume of water in the
1860s.
Ward Street was probably among the
"necessarie highways" on the south
side of the river laid out in the early
1 650s by order of the town, but it is first
mentioned by name as "the highway
near John Ward's land" in 1 658. This
same year Thomas Parker, Thomas
Hammond, and Vincent Druce, were
compensated for the damage they
sustained when a highway went through
their land. That was Hammond Street,
one of the roads to Brookline. In 1 656
these three men had bought land
straddling the Newton-Brookline line
from Nicholas Hodgsin who had
acquired it from the original grantee,
Robert Broadish, for a cow and a
mortgage. Parker bought one third;
Hammond and Druce the rest. The
property included Cambridge (now
Chestnut) Hill.
Parker built two houses on his land.
His son, Isaac, sold one to Thomas
Greenwood, a weaver from England,
who married John Ward's eldest
daughter, Hannah, and was probably
Newton's first town clerk. Most of the
rest of Parker's property, but not the
second house, eventually belonged to
Edwin Webster and became part of the
Webster Conservation Area in 1 968.
Hammond and Druce both came to
the area from Hingham, Massachusetts,
where they had been among the first
settlers. They made at least two joint
land purchases in Newton and
Brookline, and when they divided their
holdings in 1 664, Druce took his share
primarily in Brookline and Hammond his
in Newton. Druce's property extended
southwards toward Bald Pate Meadows,
and Hammond's included over 300
acres in Newton which he bought from
the heirs of Nathaniel Sparhawke who
City Engineering Department
View of Hammond's Pond from "Plan of Chestnut Hill, 1856 "
were forced to sell much of tfie
enormous estate thieir fatfier fiad
managed to accumulate. Hammond's
farm extended from Heathi to Ward
Streets, and from tiie Brookline line to
Langley Road. It included the pond
which bears his name and was
traversed by a number of streams, the
largest being Hammond Brook which
flows through Newton Centre to join
Cold Spring (Smelt) Brook just south of
Bullough's Pond. The soil was mixed:
much was peat bog, swamp and wet
meadow, but there was also the same
fertile loam as on the Ward farms, so that
here, too, orchards and gardens
flourished. A number of Hammond
houses were built, their occupants
playing various roles in the life of the
town. Of note was Colonel Benjamin,
who rose rapidly from lieutenant in the
Revolutionary War. The Worcester
Turnpike was built through his property,
but as this section of the new highway
represented hardly more than a
straightened version of the Sherborn
Road, it brought little or no change to
the area. Change, however, was not too
long in coming.
In 1 822 the 200-year-old house built
by Thomas Hammond (son of the first
Thomas) approximately where the
Chestnut Hill School stands today was
bought by Joseph Lee, a retired
sea-captain from Beverly. Lee died,
unmarried, in 1 845, and left the farm to
his nieces and nephews. Initially they
considered It very remote from Boston
and something of an incumbrance.
However, after Beacon Street was laid
out westward to Kenmore Square to
meet the road across the Back Bay mill
dam in 1850, and the railroad, with a
station on Hammond Street followed two
years later, several of the heirs came to
the conclusion that it would be a
convenient and pleasant place to live
after all. Thus the decision was taken,
not only to divide what they called the
"Uncle Joe farm" among themselves,
but to lay out roads and house lots and
create a new community for which they
chose the name "Chestnut Hill."
At first the Lees were joined by their
friends and relations, among them the
Cabots, Lowells and Saltonstalls, but in
1 856 an effort was made to attract more
buyers. A beautifully illustrated plan was
issued and within the next five years a
number of lots were sold. This was not
the first attempt to promote Newton as a
"dormitory" for Boston. Others had
been made in the years following the
opening of the Boston and Albany
Railroad. But at the time it was the
largest and most ambitious, and
heralded the transition from the old
order to the new: Newton the farming
community was yielding to the suburban
garden city.
View of The Back Bay and Beacon Hill from
"Plan of Chestnut Hill, 1856"
26
SALTBOX1670
— central chimney
— attached lean-to or shed
— clapboards unpainted
— extended rear slope of gable roof
9 Old Orchard Road
Photo: c. 1919
Jackson Homestead Collection
GUIDE TO ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
IN NEWTON
COLONIAL* (New England
Farmhouse) 1690-1780
— gable, ridged, or gambrel roof
— central or double interior chimneys
— double hung sash windows
— ornamented central doorway
137 Suffolk Road
Photo: 1889
Jackson Homestead Collection
*The architectural style called Georgian was
contemporary with the Colonial Style. It is
more decorative and ornate in its use of
architectural details. No known examples
survive in the area surveyed.
FEDERAL 1780-1820
— rectangular shape
— hip roof
— elliptical fan light
— SIX over six windows
184 Ward Street
Photo: [1940]
Courtesy Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Krims
GREEK REVIVAL 1820-1860
ITALIANATE 1840-1880
MANSARD 1855-1880
— gable roof
— triangular pediment
— columns
— entrance with transom and/or
sidelights
85 Langley Road
— paired doors and windows
— brackets at roof eaves and on
porches
— two over two windows
— arched, semi-circle or round windows
92 Langley Road
— mansard roof with curving or straight
sides
— bay windows
— dentils
— dormer
Old Oak Hill School
Photo: 1904
City Archives
Photo: 1904
City Archives
Photo: [n.d.j
JaclKSon Homestead Collection
28
Newton Historical Properties Survey
BEACON STREET
Laid out from Centre Street east in
1 850, and from Centre Street west in
1855.
550 Beacon Street
1853-4
1855 E. C. Hutchins, business
1874 E. C. Hutchins, business
The carriage house, woodshed, and the
siting of the Italianate L-shaped house
retain much of their Victorian setting.
The rear ell of the house displays
Colonial architectural features that
suggest that either this portion was built
earlier than the mam house, or that
building materials from another house
were reused. Mr. Hutchins lived in a
house on Hammond Street near the
intersection of Beacon Street in 1 848 but
in 1855 he owned both houses.
BOYLSTON STREET
Formerly known as the Worcester
Turnpike, it was completed in 1 808,
575 Boylston Street
1854
1854 William Aiken, farmer
1855 William Aiken, farmer
1874 James White, farmer
1927 Antonio Mandile, gardener
and grocer
Originally a farmhouse in the Greek
Revival Style, the first level of this house
was converted to a food market around
1 920. The triangular pediment and
moulded corner boards are visible from
Boylston Street (Route 9). Ten acres of
land remained with the house through
1 929 and greenhouses were located
nearby to serve_the market garden
owners.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
595 Boylston Street
circa 1751
*1751 Elisha Parker
1785 Jonathan Parker
1831 Parker
1855 William Aiken, farmer
It IS believed that Elisha Parker built a
Saltbox house with a central chimney at
the time of his marriage to Esther Fuller
in 1 751 , The broad gambrel roof with
dormers, and the mam entrance flanked
with panelled pilasters supporting a
pedimented cornice, are alterations
done by later owners. Elisha Parker's
grandfather Nathaniel (1670-1747) and
his father Ebenezer (1 702-1 783), both
owned property along the east-west
thoroughfare now known as Clark Street
near Boylston Street. By the 1 850s, the
Parkers had sold the house and some of
the land to William Aiken, a farmer living
on the adjacent property.
* Date from Jackson's P/an of Newton in 1 700,
see introduction
BRACEBRIDGE ROAD
Laid out from Pleasant Street to
Hancock Street in 1908.
1 5 Bracebridge Road
circa 1850
1855 Roswell W. Turner, realtor
1866 Charles S. Davis, piano
manu.
Except tor the Colonial Revival trimming
and a twentieth century addition to the
north facade, this house represents the
Italianate Style complete with hipped
roof, tower, and arched windows. From
1 844, Mr. Turner lived in Newton Centre
where he bought and sold numerous
properties. A manuscript by Margaret
Orr in the Jackson Homestead
Collection describes him as the real
estate developer of Pelham Street, Lake
Street, and the part of Beacon Street
near the village centre. Charles Davis,
owner until 1 907, called the estate
"Mount Pleasant."
Newton Historical Properties Survey
BROOKLINE STREET
The road from Brookline to Dedham
Street since 1 693.
215 Brookline Street
circa 1693
*1693 Thomas Hastings,
husbandman
1760 Samuel Richardson,
housewright
1855 H. Hodges, gardener
1874 John M. Schworer, farmer
Like many seventeenth century
farmhouses, It is believed that this was
originally a half house then expanded to
a saltbox. The symmetrical facade, with
a central ornamented doorway and 1 2
over 1 2-paned windows, Is typical of
Colonial changes and possibly made by
Samuel Richardson. In 1978 and 1979
the house was carefully restored to a
two-story saltbox eliminating a porch.
Although Thomas Hastings's
(1 671-1 737) family lived In Watertown,
he apparently was raised In Newton.
There he married Sarah Tarball in 1 693
and probably built this house. His will,
dated March 8, 1 736, mentions a house,
barn, and 34 acres which he
bequeathed to his sons. They, In turn,
sold it to Samuel Richardson, a
housewright, and son of David and
Remember Ward Richardson whose
farm was on Dedham Street near
Greenwood Street. His brother,
Jeremiah, lived nearby at 9 Burdean
Road. Ownership of 21 5 Brookline
Street changed several times until 1 874
when John Schworer bought the same
34 acres. His family remained there until
1949.
Steve Rosenthal
328 Brookline Street
circa 1 710
* 1 710 Jonathan Dyke, cooper
1796 Noah King, housewright
1868 Noah S. King, farmer
1909 Lyman W. King, clergyman
1983 June King, retired
The varying sizes of the window panes
in the front facade of this brown
clapboard saltbox support the local
belief that it was originally a half house,
that IS, narrowly built so that it could be
easily expanded to the left or the right of
the chimney. Two first floor windows
feature six over nine panes, typical of
early eighteenth century houses. Paired
chimneys indicate the center hall plan. A
pair of sidelights and a lintel
surrounding the center door date from
the Federal period. The side porch and
rear wing reinforce the image of a
timeless New England farmhouse.
The family and whereabouts of
Jonathan Dyke (died 1 751) prior to 1 710
are somewhat difficult to determine
because of the variety of spellings of his
surname (Dikes, Dix, Dike). Local deeds
and town records of 1710 indicate
Jonathan Dyke's presence and land
ownership in Oak Hill. In 1 767 the house
was sold to Simeon Pond, a yeoman
from Roxbury, and in 1 796 Noah King, a
"housewrite", bought it with 40 acres
and a barn. John King, Noah's father,
moved to Newton Centre in 1 760 where
he was a medical doctor and civic
leader. He divided much of the land he
had purchased among his three sons.
His son, Noah, acquired land in Oak Hill
from his father at about the same time
that he bought this house. At one time
the King farmstead included 70 acres
between Oak and Bald Pate Hills. It was
a working farm until the 1920s. Despite
subdivision of the land, the King family
has retained ownership of the house.
Steve Rosenthal
BURDEAN ROAD
Laid out m 1 936 from Greenwood
Street.
9 Burdean Road (formerly 83
Greenwood Street)
18th century
*1729 Timothy Hyde, soldier
1761 Jeremiah Richardson
1855 J. W. Kingsbury, farmer
1874 Mrs. J. Kingsbury, widow
It is difficult to determine whether this
house was built for Timothy Hyde or for
Jeremiah Richardson, but documentary
evidence suggests that It, or at least
ownership of the land, dates from 1 729.
In that year John Hyde 2nd bequeathed
36 acres and a dwelling house to his son
Timothy (1689-1756). As indicated by
the Moffat Plan (page 18) and the city
atlases, several buildings have existed
on the property throughout its history.
The diagonal position of the present
house implies its former relationship to
Greenwood Street and its south-facing
facade indicates its Colonial origin.
Changes are evident in the small two
over two window lights, small chimney.
foundation and porch. Jeremiah
Richardson, son of David and
Remember Richardson, bought land
from the Hyde family about the time of
his marriage to Dorcas Hall in 1 761 . At
the death of their son Thomas
Richardson in 1836, Elizabeth, his
widow, sold 55 acres and buildingsto
Thomas Ayling, gentleman, of
Bloomingdale, New York, who in turn
sold to Sarah Smith, widow, of Boston.
In 1 853 John Kingsbury of Hammond
Street bought the so-called Richardson
Farm for his son John W. Kingsbury and
his wife Elizabeth. The deed refers to the
Moffat plan, drawn by E. F Woodward,
but no information about J. Moffat is
available. One can only assume that
prior to Woodward's death in 1 846, Mr.
Moffat was interested in purchasing the
farm, since it was available several times
from 1 836 to 1 853. As many as thirty
acres remained with the house until the
1930s when the owner Dorris Norris
subdivided the property.
CENTRE STREET
Part of the road from Watertown to
Dedfiam dating from the 1630s.
983 Centre Street
circa 1850
1855 Joseph Gunderson, bank
cashier
1874 Joseph Gunderson
1925 Trinity Church Parish House
The wide corner boards, flat pilasters,
architrave and gable roof are the
original features of this house which
characterize it as Greek Revival, This
house was one of several estates on
Centre Street. Arthur C. Walworth
(1 844-1920) described the street in his
"Reminiscences" as "lined with willow
trees. Fences and gates were
necessary, for on market days droves of
cattle went by on their way to Brighton
and much damage could be done to
flower beds and vegetable gardens."
The land on which it stands was formerly
part of Reverend Jonathan Homer s
farm, and Joseph Gunderson was one
of the first to build a suburban house in
Newton Centre, when the railroad was
extended from Brookline through the
south side of Newton.
1457 Centre Street
circa 1830
1831 Clark
1855 Mrs. M.A. Clark
1874 Asa W. Armington, salesman
In the 1 830s several houses were on
Centre Street near Crystal Lake. This
one IS the only survivor of three houses
belonging to the Clark family shown on
the 1 848 map. Few original features
remain exhibiting its Greek Revival
Style: sidehall entry, gabled facade with
a wide boxed cornice and returns, and
raised mouldings over the windows and
door. It IS difficult to determine what
members of the Clark family were the
occupants of the house. John Clark
arrived m Newton in the late
seventeenth century and many of his
decendants remained in the town.
Newton Historical Propi
CLARK STREET
Named for a seventeenth century local
family, it was part of the Sherborn Road
prior to 1808.
144 Clark Street
circa 1840
1855 John Stearns, farmer
1895 Charles Stearns, farmer
A noted feature of this two-and-a-half
story Greek Revival farmhouse Is the
projecting center bay with gable roof
that defines the central entrance way.
Other characteristics are the full side
lights and elongated first story windows.
The Stearns farmstead Included land on
both sides of Clark Street and an area
south of Boylston Street. A tributary of
South Meadow Brook is called Stearns
Brook.
DEDHAM STREET
Part of the road from Watertown to
Dedham that dates from the settlement
of Dedham in 1 635.
349 Dedham Street
1829, late 19th century
1 831 E. Stone, farmer
1855 E. Stone
1874 Mary C. Stone, widow
1895 Clarence Stetson, provisions
Ebenezer Stone (1663-1 741), born in
Watertown, settled first in Newton
Corner, then in Chestnut Hill. His son
John (1692-1769), a weaver, bought
land on the southwest side of Dedham
Street in the 1 720s. Successive Stone
generations farmed the area for 1 50
years. Three Stone houses remain today
in Oak Hill: 349,360, and 391 Dedham
Street. It is believed that Ebenezer
Stone, great-great grandson of John,
built a portion of #349 in 1 829 on land
that he inherited. By the time of his death
the house had doubled in size, thus
obscuring the original structure. The
front facade exhibits the late nineteenth
century Colonial Revival Style and may
have been added by Mr. and Mrs.
Clarence Stetson, owners between 1 895
and 1929.
360 Dedham Street
circa 1830
1831 David Stone, farmer
1855 David Stone, farmer
1886 Martha Stone, widow of
David
Paneled corner boards and moulded
trim mark this L-shaped farmhouse built
during the Greek Revival period.
Probably constructed at the time of
David Stone's marriage to Martha
Stone, a distant cousin, it still retains the
original granite wall and posts
designating the entrance drive.
On the 1855 map a blacksmith shop is
shown near David Stone's house. The
shopisgoneby 18 74, Theonly
connection that can be established was
found in the Stone Genealogy that
describes David Stone as being
apprenticed as a blacksmith in
Cambridge. In 1830, returning to Oak
Hill, he followed his trade and later
engaged in farming.
Jackson Homestead Collections
391 Dedham Street
circa 1772
1772 Stone
1831 Stone
1855 E. Stone, farmer
1868 Grafton Stone, milk
1917 Peter Volante, gardener
The original house has a symmetrical
mam facade with lintels over the
windows and a triangular pediment
capping the doorway. Seen from
Dedham Street are the central chimney
and gable end of the roof. Several
additions to the rear of the building were
added in the nineteenth century.
It is believed that this house was built
for one of Captain Jonas and Anna
Stone's sons. Both Ebenezer
(1 757-1 800) and Jonas Junior
(1749-1 835) are listed on the 1 798 tax
list: Jonas had a house valued at $340
with 52 acres valued at $1 ,346, while
Ebenezer's house was valued at $825
with 1 00 acres at $2,392. A working
farm remained here until the middle of
this century.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
729 Dedham Street
circa 1855
1855 Calvin Rand
1874 H. E. Howard, schoolmaster
1886 William Sanderson, farmer
The broad columns and horizontal
entablature of a Greek temple are
imitated m this one-and-a-half story
house. It was built by a local carpenter
using wide boards and mouldings to
represent these features. The centered
door with sidelights and high lintel is a
miniature version of the same image.
The large rear ell was added by 1886.
Steve Rosenthal
777 Dedham Street (Mt. Ida Junior
College campus)
circa 1719
*1718 Robert Murdock, Junior
1772 Wiswall
1831 William Wiswall
1855 B. H. Cooke
1 920 Peabody Home Tea Room
Originally a center chimney saltbox, the
house was enlarged to a two-and-a-half
story farmhouse with connected barns
in the mid- nineteenth century In 1 964
the mam house was moved across
Brookline Street to Carlson Avenue,
near the entrance of Mt, Ida Junior
College. At that time eighteenth and
nineteenth century architectural
components were carefully restored. A
twentieth century wing and attached
garage sympathetically blend with the
older elements.
The earliest portions of the house
were built at the time of Robert Murdock,
Junior's, marriage to Abigail Hyde in
1719. Captain Jeremiah Wiswall
(1725-1807) acquired two Murdock
properties at the intersection of Dedham
and Brookline Streets. First, in 1 757, his
wife Elizabeth inherited the south parcel
from her father, Robert Murdock, Junior.
Subsequently he bought a 26-acre
parcel with this house from his
brother-in-law, Joshua Murdock, in
1 767. The Wiswall family resided in the
house through 1 855.
40
926 Dedham Street
circa 1772
*1713 John Wilson
1772 Wilson
1831 Richards
1855 Wm. Mcintosh, farmer
1874 Marcus Byrne, farmer
This house has the shape and
proportions of a typical late Colonial
farmhouse. Twentieth century siding and
porches have been added. In a deed of
1 800, it IS recorded that John Wilson
sold a dwelling house and 40 acres with
a Cider mill to Daniel Richards. The first
decades of this century found this house
still part of a farmstead that included
four barns and 41 acres of land.
992 Dedham Street
circa 1 850
1 855 T. J. Orange, farmer
1874 Thomas Orange, farmer
1927 William Wright, farmer
Several families lived along both sides of
Dedham Street from Oak Hill Street to
the Roxbury line during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, but numbers
926 and 992 are the only houses
remaining from those years. This house
was sided in the twentieth century and
Its original features have been altered.
However, the proportions, roof, and
windows appear to be pre- 1 855.
DUDLEY ROAD
Newton Historical Properties Survey
Laid out in 1 71 1 as an open highway
and part of the road from Roxbury, it was
designated a scenic road by the Board
of Aldermen in 1 974.
336 Dudley Road
18th century
*1708 John Hyde, husbandman
1 738 John Hyde, Junior
1751 Elisha Hyde
1831 Hyde
1844 Conrad Decker, farmer
1855 Conrad Decker, farmer
This five bay rectilinear house with low
granite foundation and gabie roof gives
the impression of a Colonial farmhouse.
Its overall image is similar to the other
Hyde houses at 9 Burdean Road and 29
Greenwood Street. No original details
appear to remain, as the doors,
windows, and chimneys were
modernized in the late nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. The house is on the
site of, and perhaps is a portion of, the
house with 46 acres which in 1 703
Jonathan Hyde, Senior, gave to his son
John (1656-1 738). His son, John Junior
(1 686-1 760) died a bachelor and left the
estate to his brother Timothy's children.
It IS believed that one of these heirs,
Elisha(1730-1781), lived there, as did
his sons Gershom II (1 755-1 836) and
ElishaJunior(1757-1838). Thus the
house was occupied by Hydes until it
was purchased by Conrad Decker, a
farmer from West Cambridge, in 1 844,
Steve Rosenthal
GREENWOOD STREET
In 1 71 1 a highway was laid out "from
the road that goeth from our meeting
house to the Roxbury line unto the road
that goeth to Dedham".
29 Greenwood Street
circa 1 744
1744 Gershom Hyde
*1782 Thaddeus Hyde
1 855 T. Hyde, Junior
1860 Edward Wales, farmer
1868 George Wales, fruit
preserves
This house is an example of a New
England Farmhouse Style which was
common between 1 690 and 1 780^ Its
exterior features are a gable roof,
central chimney, clapboard siding and
central doorway (which in this case is
covered by a twentieth century porch),
and a low foundation. Research has
shown that in the second quarter of the
eighteenth century John Hyde, Junior, a
bachelor, lived at nearby 336 Dudley
Road and his brother Timothy resided
opposite at what is now 9 Burdean
Road. It IS possible that Timothy's son
Gershom (1 71 9-1 754), who married
Grace Norcross in 1 744, was the first
occupant of this house. He died at age
35, leaving no will, and his widow
remarried In 1 757. A 1 766 Town Meeting
Record provides evidence that the heirs
of Gershom Hyde owned land bounded
by the South Ministerial Woodlot, which
was located next to 29 Greenwood
Street at the corner of Dudley Road and
Greenwood Street. There is no record of
how Thaddeus Hyde (1 751 -1 821) got
the house, but he is the nephew of
Gershom Hyde and it was his heirs who
sold several parcels of land, totaling 53
acres, as well as the homestead to
Edward Wales m 1860.
HAMMOND STREET
Courtesy Feme E Worthington
The earliest known reference to this
highway was in 1 658. It was designated
a scenic road in 1 974.
521 Hammond Street
1675, late 19th century, 1937
1675 Nathaniel Hammond, Senior
* 1 749 Benjamin Hammond, soldier
1794 Benjamin Hammond, Junior
1823 Samuel Jepson, coach
maker
1 848 Henry or Charles Jepson,
yeomen
1858 John Lowell, District Judge
Nestled between the railroad tracks laid
out in 1 852 and the shopping mall built
in the twentieth century, the building with
its nearby barns is a reminder of
Chestnut Hill's agricultural past. A
section of this house appears to be
Colonial and possibly dates from before
1675. The 1675 will of Thomas
Hammond, Senior, stated that his son
Nathaniel (1643-1691) had a house. The
heirs of Nathaniel occupied the house
through 1810. By that time two
descendents, Benjamin and his son
Benjamin, Junior, had sold the farm in
43
several parcels. The Jepson family
acquired the Hammond house when
Samuel Jepson of Boston purchased the
buildings and 50 acres in 1823.
Between 1 858 and 1 863 Judge
Lowell purchased the house and the
surrounding acreage from the Jepson
and Kingsbury families (307 Hammond
Street). The house was enlarged by the
Lowells in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century Further changes
were made when Mrs. Storer, the 1 937
owner, commissioned the Boston
architectural firm of Blodgett and Law to
undertake a major renovation.
44
HERRICK ROAD
Formerly Institution Avenue, this
street was accepted by the City in
1876 and renamed in 1950 in honor
of Dr. Everett Herrick, President of the
Newton Theological Institution from
1926 to 1957.
157 Herrick Road
1829, 1857
1831 Theological Seminary
1855 Newton Theological
Institution
1931 Andover-Newton
Theological School
In 1 826 the eighty-five acre Peck estate
was bought for the Newton Theological
Institution. According to Smith's History
of Newton, the present "Brick Building",
paid for by public subscription, was
completed in 1829 and named Farwell
Hall after Levi Farwell, first treasurer and
generous contributor to the Institution.
The scale of the original two-story
building has been altered by the 1 857
addition of a mansard roof, but the
proportions of the windows and the
rectangular shape of a mansard roof,
recall its Federal origins.
Steve Rosenthal
HOMER STREET
In 1 716 this street was laid out from the
west part of town to the meeting house.
Reverend Jonathan Homer, for whom
the road was later named, was pastor of
the First Parish Church from 1 785 to
1840.
85 Homer Street
1854
1855 Z. Erastus Coffin, merchant
1874 Benjamin F. Brown, blacking
manuf.
Dating from 1 854, this late Greek
Revival house blends the traditional five
bay rectangular form with the classical
features of paneled corner boards,
entablature, and side-lighted central
entrance. Three houses in this vicinity
(83 and 85 Homer Street and 1 5 Water
Street) were built on lots that Martin
Morse subdivided after he bought much
of the late Reverend Homer's farm.
93 Homer Street
circa 1847-8
1848 Bartholomew Wood, teacher
1907 Maria F. Wood
Portions of this house may have been
built for Mr. Wood by Daniel Eddy, a
Boston housewright, in 1 847-8, and the
original house nnay have resembled its
neighbor at 85 Homer Street, Later
additions were made by Mr. and Mrs.
Wood who remained at this location
through 1 907. A high style wood fence
in front of the house is reminiscent of the
traditional New England picket fence
common in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries.
168 Homer Street
1829, 1844-54
1831 Dr. Samuel Clarke, medical
doctor
1848 Roswell Turner, real estate
1855 F. B. Webster, businessman,
Boston merchant
The east wing of the house and sheds
date from Samuel Clarke's ownership in
1 829, Visually predominant is the mam
block built in the Mansard Style between
1 844 and 1 854. The fish-scale slate roof
and wide eaves with paired brackets are
typical of this style.
With Dr. Clarke's marriage to Rebecca
Hull, he established a long time
association with Newton. One son,
James Freeman Clarke, became a
well-known Unitarian minister. Dr. Clarke
operated an apothecary shop in Boston,
which later became the Old Corner
Bookstore. In 1828 he returned to
Newton where he began the Boston
Chemical Factory. This house was built
for Dr. Clarke not far from the factory.
The property changed owners several
times after his death in 1 831 , until
Roswell Turner bought the property with
20 acres in 1844. This purchase marked
the beginning of Turner's twenty year
involvement with Newton Centre real
estate. Mr. Turner built one of the earliest
examples of the Mansard Style adjacent
to the earlier house and then sold the
house on four-and-a-half acres for
$7,500 to Mr. Webster.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
Steve Rosenthal
255 Homer Street
late 18th century, 1848
1787 Capt. Henry King,
blacksmith
1848 Thomas Smith, bank teller
1855 Rev. George Carlton,
clergyman
Newton houses were generally built in
the Mansard Style between 1 855 and
1 880. This house and its neighbor at
1 68 Homer Street are two of the earliest
examples known in the City. Set back on
a hill, the house is distinguished by its
clapboard siding ornamented with
quoins, a bellcast Mansard roof with red
and black fish-scale patterned slate, and
paired brackets under the eaves. The
attached two-story wing in the rear dates
from the ownership of Captain Henry
King (1787-1823), or perhaps earlier.
Homer Street was laid out in 1716
through what had been Jonathan
Hyde's seventeenth century 300-acre
farm. Three of his sons built houses on
land extending as far as present-day
Bullough's Pond. One of them, William
Hyde, sold an old house and 1 4 acres to
Dr. John King, a prominent medical
doctor and civic leader who lived near
the Newton Centre Common. In 1 787
Dr. King gave this property, still with an
"old house", to his son Henry. Whether
Henry King, who married in 1 786, lived
in the earlier eighteenth century house
or built another is difficult to determine.
When he died in 1823, his homestead
included 58 acres with buildings. After
several owners, Thomas Smith
purchased almost the entire King farm
for $5,000 in 1847. He probably had the
Mansard Style house constructed
during his ownership. Between 1 849
and 1 854, Smith sold portions of the
property to Reverend George Carlton
from West Cambridge. The price for one
parcel with ten acres and a dwelling
house was $4,000, and another 1 2
acres described as Smith's garden with
stone wall and chestnut tree sold for
$5,000. Reverend Carlton remained
therethrough the 1880s.
Barbara Thibault
HYDE STREET
Originally a driveway to the Hyde
House; it was accepted in sections as a
street by the City between 1 873 and
1907.
22 Hyde Street, 1848-51
1855 William Hyde, farmer
1874 William Hyde, farmer
This residence is a local builder's
adaptation of the Greek Revival Style.
The house has a traditional center
entrance flanked by sidelights, though
the entrance porch and dormers are not
original. William Hyde, born in 1818,
was a descendant of Jonathan Hyde,
Senior, who first bought land in Newton
in 1 647. Members of this family built
houses and farmed from that time
through the nineteenth century. A
long-time resident of Newton Highlands,
William was the cousin of James F. C.
Hyde (1 825-1 898) who became
Newton's first mayor when the town was
incorporated as a city in 1 873,
JACKSON STREET
Part of the Sherborn Road
1 25 Jackson Street, 1 768, 1 782
'Abraham Jackson, blacksmith
1782 Aaron Richards,
housewright
1825 Ephraim Jackson 2nd
1855 Ephraim Jackson 2nd
A traditional Colonial house with gable
roof, twin chimneys and symmetrical
facade, this structure also has early
Greek Revival characteristics. The wide
vertical corner boards with recessed
panels and the front portico with
columns typify this early nineteenth
century architectural style.
Abraham Jackson bought land from
Ebenezer Parker in 1 766, and in 1 768
he took out a mortgage for three acres
With a house, barn and ten acres of
woodland. In 1 782 Aaron Richards of
Dedham bought the house from
Abraham Jackson and additional
acreage from Jonas and Martha
Jackson between 1 783 and 1 800. It is
possible that Mr. Richards, a carpenter,
built the main block of the present house
and that an earlier structure exists that
was Abraham Jackson's house. Aaron
Richards remained there until his death
in 1 823 at which time his children sold
his property in ten parcels totalling 60
acres to Ephraim Jackson 2nd
(1781-1860) for $3,500. One parcel
consisted of 13 acres with a dwelling
house and other buildings, bounded
south by the county road (Jackson
Street), east by land of Bartlett, north by
Bartlett and the late Peck
(Andover-Newton Theological School)
and west by a town way (Cypress
Street). Ephraim Jackson died in 1860
leaving 52 acres with buildings in
Newton Centre. His will refers to his
estate as the so-called "Aaron Richards
farm". His sons divided the property
andsoldthehouse. By 1874 the
Children's Aid Society occupied the
house.
Newion Historical Properties Survey
LANGLEY ROAD
A town way laid out in 1 809, later
known as Station Street and in 1 895
renamed Langley Road for a
prominent resident.
85 Langley Road
1847
1847 Jonas Salisbury, yeoman
1855 Warren Ellis, merchant
1873 George Ellis, provisions
Thiis tiouse IS a fine example of the
Greek Revival Style with paneled
pilasters, a deep frieze and triangular
pediments in each gable end. A front
porch has Doric columns and the main
entrance is highlighted by side lights
and a transom. Jonas Salisbury, owner
of many Newton Centre properties,
acquired the land in 1 846. He
contracted with a local housewright,
Henry Fuller of Newton Corner, to build
a house for $2,630 according to a plan
drawn by Mr. Fuller. From the 1 840's
until his death in 1 898, Mr. Fuller built a
number of houses in Newton, especially
in the Newton area. The source for the
classical architectural details may have
been an architect-builder's guide which
he owned, entitled The British Architect.
The book, now in the Jackson Home-
stead Collection, was written by British
architect Abraham Swan in 1 744 and
reprinted in Boston by 1 794. This house
IS one of the few known examples by Mr.
Fuller. It IS not clear whether Mr.
Salisbury ever lived in the house or not.
By 1 853, he sold the house with three
acres for $4,000 to Mr. Ellis, a local
shopkeeper.
92 Langley Road
1855
1855 Manly Lothrop, trader
1871 J. H. Daniels, lithographer
Built m the Italianate Style, this house
displays the characteristic details of
deep overhanging eaves, paired
brackets and porch with chamfered
posts. The first owner, Mr. Lothrop, was
active in local real estate. The next
occupant, John Daniels, joined the
growing numbers of suburban
commuters and travelled on the train to
Boston to reach his Washington Street
business.
For illustration see Guide: Italiante
Style.
50
MORSELAND AVENUE
Laid out as private road in 1859 when
Lyman an Alfred Morse subdivided
land between Mill and Ward Streets.
Morseland Avenue, once part of
Water Street, was accepted by thie
City in 1902.
29-31 Morseland Avenue
pre-1831
1831 Dr. Jonathan Homer, pastor
1848 Martin Morse, farmer
1855 M. Morse, farmer
In 1 844 Martin Morse, a farmer from
Brookline, bought the Reverend John
Homer's house on Centre Street
(opposite Ward) with 35 acres,
stretching from Pleasant to Mill Street.
Ten years later some of the land was
sold and subdivided. The house was
moved to Morseland Avenue between
1 855 and 1 866 and was occupied by
the Morse family through the 1 950s.
They ran a market garden on eight acres
until 1911. Original features of the house
that may still be seen are the mam block
With a cornice, dentil moulding and six
over six windows.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
MORTON STREET
Morton Street, from Mill to Homer Street,
is marked on the 1 848 map, though the
location is that of the present Cedar
Street. The street was probably William
Morton's private driveway. Both Morton
and Cedar Streets were accepted by the
City in 1908.
97 Morton Street
circa 1852
1852 Philip Goodridge,
housewright
1866 Philip Goodridge,
housewright
1874 P. W. Goodridge,
patternmaker
This house and its lot appear after the
subdivision of the Morton estate. Built in
a popular form of the Greek Revival
Style with a front gable and sidehall
entrance, it closely resembles its
neighbor at 1 05 Morton Street. Mr.
Morton's estate described in King's
Handbook of Newton as a "gothic villa"
was just north of Cedar Street. He sold
ten acres of the estate to local
speculators in 1 847 with the following
restrictions: "that there shall not be built
upon the aforesaid land any buildings
that shall be used for the purpose of a
slaughter house, glue factory, varnish
factory, distillery or for any purpose that
would generally in a village be
considered a nuisance". In that same
year, privileges for the use of a road
through Mr. Morton's land to the town
road were granted to Nathaniel Prince
and Philip Goodridge, Newton
housewrights who purchased one-acre
parcels. In 1852 Mr. Goodridge
borrowed $1 ,000 and agreed to "erect a
dwelling house upon the (this) lot...
within one year... the cost of which shall
not amount to a sum less than $1 ,500."
Newton Historical
51
105 Morton Street
circa 1855
1855 Jonas Salisbury, trucl<man
1855 J. H. Hazelton, paper hanger
1874 J. H. Hazelton, paper hanger
This Greek Revival house, like its
neighbor, 97 Morton Street, retains
panelled pilasters and side entrance
with transom and sidelights. Though
identified as a yeoman (market gardener
or truck farmer) in deeds, the first owner,
Jonas Salisbury, emerged as an early
Newton Centre real estate entrepreneur.
First acquiring land through his
marriage to Elizabeth Ann King, he
bought and sold numerous lots in the
village center over a period of twenty
years. As in the case of 85 Langley
Road, It appears as if Salisbury probably
did not live in this house. In 1 852, Mr.
Salisbury purchased this
one-acre lot from Philip Goodridge for
$400. Then, he sold that lot with a
dwelling house to John Hazelton in 1 855
for $3,500, thus fixing the date of this
house between 1 852 and 1 855.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
NAHANTON STREET
Part of the road from Dedham Street to
the river sirice 1711,
241 Nahanton Street
circa 1830
1831 Ebenezer Stone
1836 Samuel Stone, yeoman
1855 Timothy Randal, yeoman
1874 George Butters, farmer
Though the symmetical front facade is
typical of earlier styles, the one-story
columned porch and center doorway
with sidelights represent the Greek
Revival Style. This house was built for
Ebenezer Stone who also had property
on Dedham Street. In 1856, George
Butters of Brookline purchased several
Oak Hill properties, including this
house. He acquired 75 acres which was
atypical New England farm. The Butters
family remained there through 1 900.
303 Nahanton Street
circa 1855
1855 David Hall, Junior, yeoman
1917 Mrs. David Hall
1929 Crescenzo Angino, driver
Though this house dates from 1 855, the
ancestors of its owner, David Hall, were
in Newton earlier. In 1 705 Andrew Hall,
a weaver, purchased 43 acres of land
near the intersection of Nahanton and
Dedham Streets. Members of the Hall
family remained on Nahanton Street
farming the land and participating in
local affairs until the twentieth century In
the early twentieth century the house
was enlarged by raising the roof, and
altering the barn. However, the scale
and proportions of the buildings, as well
as the adjacent open fields, provide a
view into an agricultural past. This is
Newton's last remaining working farm.
Jackson Horriebtedd Collections
0
CO
OLD ORCHARD ROAD
Partly laid out in 1901
9 Old Orchard Road (formerly
Hammond Street near Beacon
Street)
circa 1662
1662 Thomas Hammond, Junior
* 1 71 4 Thomas Hammond, 3rd
1782 Thomas Hammond, yeoman
1831 Ebenezer Fuller, yeoman
1855 Joseph Woodman, farmer
1874 J. and J. Woodman, farmers
1919 William Coburn, banker
The original Saltbox Style house with a
central chimney is located in the middle
of the present house and is considered
the oldest existing structure in Newton.
After 1 91 9 Its owners renovated the
building, and it took on its present
appearance of an eighteenth century
formal country house of Georgian Style,
It IS commonly thought that the house
was built for Thomas Hammond, Junior,
who married in1662. From the 1675 will
of his father, Thomas Hammond, Senior,
it is learned that the two sons, Thomas,
Junior, and Nathaniel, were given the
houses they already occupied.
Hammond descendants lived in the
house until 181 1 when Thomas
Hammond sold a farm called
"Hammond Place" with a dwelling
house, barn, other buildings, and 79
acres. The farm had several owners until
Joseph and John Woodman of West
Cambridge purchased the property in
1 840. Subdivision of the farmland did
not occur until the 1 890s. By then the
Woodman family had built a new house
at 25 Old Orchard Road and the old
"Hammond Place" with one acre was
unoccupied until it was sold m 1919.
54
Jackson Homestead Collections
PARKER STREET
Laid out in 1 852 from Oak Hill to Newton
Centre "commencing at the orchard of
Ebenezer Stone on the present
Watertown to Dedham Road... to the
Common at Newton Centre". Named
after Nathaniel Parker and his
descendants who lived near the
intersection of Boylston and Clark
Streets from 1 680 to the 1 850s.
151 Parker Street
1855-59
1859 William Giles, painter
1874 William Giles
This house does not appear on Newton
maps until 1866. However, the
architectural features in the
one-and-a-half story structure combine
the Greek Revival and Italianate Styles
which suggest that it may have been
built in the 1850s. In 1855, Seth Davis, a
well-known West Newton resident, paid
William Aiken, who lived at 595 Boylston
Street, $260.59 for 36,562 square feet of
land. In 1 859 William Giles paid Davis
$1 ,450 for the same land now including
a dwelling house.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
PLEASANT STREET
Formerly called Curve Street, it was laid
out as a private way in 1 849 and
accepted by the Town in 1 859 from
Centre Street to Homer Street. Pleasant
Street was probably named for Mount
Pleasant, the name of the estate on
Bracebridge Road.
71 , 75 and 83 Pleasant Street
1850-1869
1 855 Barnas Sears, Doctor of
Divinity
1 874 Charles Clark, merchant
Originally, one building was at this
location but some time between 1917
and 1929, possibly by 1923, the house,
known as #75, was divided into three
sections. The mam block, representing
the 1 850s Italianate Style, remained on
the original site and was renumbered
71 . The first floor windows are full length
with SIX over nine panes and the hooded
lintels supported on paired brackets are
features of the style. Ornate brackets
also decorate the roof eaves. The
portion of the house which was
relocated to the present #75 has been
re-sided in stucco. Changes to the roof
were made when the building was
updated to the 1 920s Craftsman Style.
The original kitchen wing was moved to
the rear of the property and is now #83.
Features that are probably original are
the small windows which may have had
six over six panes, the corner boards,
clapboards and gable roof.
A house belonging to Reverend
Sears, described as being from Newton
and as President of Brown University, is
shown on Pleasant Street at the curve on
the 1 855 map, A deed of the same year
records that Reverend Sears sold nine
acres on Pleasant Street to Joseph
Parker, also a Doctor of Divinity, who in
turn sold the land with buildings to
Caroline Tyler Clark, wife of Charles
Clark, merchant of Boston, in 1867. A
plan of the estate drawn m 1 869 shows a
large L-shaped house with an extended
west wing, two ponds, and numerous
acres encompassing the present
Newton Centre Playground. Charles
Clark, who became President of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad, and members of his family,
remained at this location through 1 929.
Newton Historical Properties Survey
SUFFOLK ROAD
Formerly called Rockminster Road, it
was laid out in sections between 1894
and 1908
137 Suffolk Road (formerly 307
Hammond Street)
1680-1701
*1686 John Parker, Junior,
husbandman
1701 Ebenezer Stone
1817 John Kingsbury, farmer
1855 J. and I. Kingsbury
1896 Edwin Webster, electrical
engineer
It IS possible that this house or portions
of It were built by John Parker, Junior, in
the 1680s. A central chimney is common
in seventeenth century houses.
However, the features of a gable roof,
double hung sash windows with small
panes and center doorway are more
typical of an eighteenth century
farmhouse.
In 1686 John Parker, carpenter,
bequeathed to his son John eleven
acres with a dwelling house, seven
acres of meadow and woodland, and
one cow. John, Junior, in turn sold to
Ebenezer Stone of Newton Corner, one
"mansion house" and barns with
fourteen acres; one half of it orchard,
upland and meadow in 1 701 . One
hundred years later in 1817 John Stone,
yeoman, sold the property to John
Kingsbury of Brookline. In addition to
the buildings and land, Kingsbury also
purchased "Wall Pew number 43 in
Reverend Homer's meeting house and
stable number six".
John Kingsbury and his children were
major land owners in Chestnut Hill and
Oak Hill throughout the nineteenth
century. Isaac F. Kingsbury, John's
grandson, was city clerk from
1 883-1 91 1 and acquired the old house.
However, he lived at 360 Hammond
Street and rented this house to Charles
Burrage. In 1 896 when Mr. and Mrs.
Webster bought the property intending
to build a new house, the old house was
preserved by Mr. Burrage who moved it
to Its present location in 1 904.
I
57
Barbara Thibault
SUMNER STREET
Named for the well-known abolitionist
Charles Sumner who lived on Beacon
Hill and was an occasional visitor to
William Jackson's house in Newton, the
street was accepted by the City in 1 908.
28 Sumner Street (formerly 6 Sumner
Street)
1848 Hazelton
1855 Hazelton
1886 Lewis Speare, oils
Few examples of the Gothic Revival
Style, popular between 1 840 and 1 870,
exist in Newton. The steep pitch of the
gable roof of this one-and-a-half story
house IS typical of the style. Its
lengthwise location to the street resulted
when the house was moved from the
corner of Sumner and Ward Streets to its
present site between 1 886 and 1 895,
when the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis
Speare, chose to build a new house on
Ward Street. In 1895 Mr. and Mrs.
Edward Speare lived in the older house
and a family member remained there
through 1929.
VINE STREET
Part of the road to Roxbury, renewed by
the Town Highway Committee in 1 71 1 .
134 Vine Street
*1681 Thomas Prentice, Senior
1728 Timothy Whitney,
husbandman
1772 Moses Whitney, yeoman
1848 Whitney
1855 George Curtis, farmer
1874 Mary Curtis, widow
The house or parts of it may date from
the early owners, but the twentieth
century additions and alterations have
left little visual evidence. Building
permits describe the addition of an ell
and a two-story wing, the reconstruction
of a shed at the rear of the house, the
relocation of the front door, and the
repair of fire damage.
Several houses, barns, and possibly
a mill existed along this colonial
roadway by the Sawmill Brook
throughout the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. In 1681 Edward
Jackson bequeathed 1 00 acres to his
son-in-law Thomas Prentice, Senior,
I
58
(1 629-1 724). His heirs sold a dwelling
house and land in 1 728 to Timothy
Whitney. This property became known
as the "Whitney Farm" even after it was
sold in 1854 to George Curtis.
Steve Rosenthal
WARD STREET
Probably laid out in the early 1650s and
became the road to Brighton.
121 Ward Street
1821
1831 Ward
1855 E. Ward
1874 T. A. Ward, farmer
191 7 Mr. T. A. Ward
The front facade has Federal Style
characteristics with the central doorway
and symmetrically arranged six over six
windows. The house was constructed in
1 821 near the site of John Ward's home,
which was demolished soon after in
1 822, Tradition describes this house
as belonging to Ephraim Ward
(1 799-1 871 ). He was a fourth generation
descendant of John Ward, and the son
of Samuel Ward (1762-1834). From
John's marriage in 1 650 to Hannah
Jackson he acquired 45 acres on Ward
Street near Hammond Street. They built
a house commonly known as the
"garrison house" because it had an
extended upper story with small
windows in order to dump boiling water
and heavy stones in case of attack. By
the time of the death of Ephralm's father,
Samuel Ward, in 1 834, the Ward
property encompassed much of Ward
Street. Two other houses, #184 and
#303, were built for Ephraim's brothers
about the same time as #121 . Ward
descendants continued to own this
house until 1 974.
175 Ward Street
circa 1801
1831 Hyde
1855 Michael IVIartin, farmer
1917 Margaret Martin
Typically Federal in style, the front
facade has window and door surrounds
of narrow moulding, and a central
entrance. The roofline with an elongated
rear slope presents a saltbox profile.
That is compatible with the Federal
facade but may not be original. Charles
Hyde (1 774-1 821 ) built the house at the
time of his marriage in 1 801 to Sarah
Jackson. Ownership of the "Hyde
Place" so-called in the numerous
water and property disputes of the
mid-century Newton tunnel
construction, changed many times.
Finally in 1852, Michael Martin
purchased the house and a portion of
the property The Martin family remained
owners through the early twentieth
century though they built a new house at
1 69/1 71 Ward Street by 1 885 and
rented the older house to local laborers.
60
Newton Historical Properties Survey
1 84 Ward Street/5 Nobscot Street
circa 1800
1831 Ward
1855 John Ward, farmer
1917 John Ward heirs
Federal in style, this house has a hipped
roof, three interior chinnneys and wide
cornerboards. It is located on a corner
lot and has two five-bay facades, one
facing each street. The traditional center
doorways have features that may or may
not be original, but which exhibit the
general proportions, windows and
mouldings common to the Federal
period.
John Ward, the son of Samuel and
Esther, married Mary Kingsbury in 1822
and they lived in the house, continuing
the family tradition of market gardening
on the surrounding property. John's son
John Ward (1825-191 1), who married
Lydia Bartlett, wrote "Recollections of
an Early Home" in 1 906 describing the
farm life on Ward Street. Hay and apples
were major crops, with smaller orchards
of pears, cherries and peaches grown
from seedlings purchased from Samuel
Hyde's nursery. John Ward, Junior, and
his brother George built houses on both
sides of their father's house by 1 874. In
1907 John lived at #194 and rented
#1 84 to a gardener and milkman. The
property consisted of eight acres.
Nobscot Road would not be completed
from Commonwealth Avenue to Ward
Street for another year.
193 Ward Street
circa 1830
1831 Harbach, provisions
1855 J. W. Harbach, butcher
1921 Sophronia Harbach
A prominent feature of this Federal Style
house is the center entrance with a
fanlight and sidelights which may or may
not be original. Siding and roof
alterations were done in the twentieth
century. Ownership of the property can
be traced to Thomas Harbach who
began buying property in Newton as
early as 1 796 and moved his family from
Brookline to a house on the corner of
Ward Street and Waverly Avenue in
1 806. In 1 831 , this house was one of
three Harbach family homes at the
intersection. It was built for Thomas's
son John W. Harbach (1803-57) when he
married Charlotte Pettee in 1833. John
operated a provision business in
Newton and Brookline until his death in
1857. The Harbach family remained at
this address through 1 921 .
Newton Historical Properties Survey
303 Ward Street
circa 1800
1831 Ward
1855 J. W. Harbach, provisions
1874 Harvey James, provisions
The proportions of the house, the low
pitched hip roof and the corner
pilasters, identify it as being in the
Federal Style. Though alterations are
visible, the window surrounds are
Federal in their appearance with
moulding of mitred strips of wood. By
1855 John W. Harbach (1 803-1 857) or
his son John Wilson Harbach
(1838-1886) owned the house. The
property which included the house and
four and a half acres were sold to
another provision dealer, Harvey
James, in 1 873. Occupant of the house
from 1 873 to 1 907, Mr. James operated
the H, James and W. H. Brackett
Provisions Store in Newton Corner.
WATER STREET
An unnamed road in 1 874. Named for a
local resident by 1 886.
15 Water Street
circa 1855
1855 Lyman IVIorse, gardener
1 874 J. Whitney, clergyman
Lyman Morse was the first occupant of
this house which originally fronted on
Homer Street. Though altered greatly in
the twentieth century, the Homer Street
facade of the house resembles its
neighbor 85 Homer Street, with the
entablature under the wide overhang of
the roof. The property was originally
bounded by the Centre Schoolhouse lot.
The schoolhouse was destroyed
between 1 848 and 1 855. All that
remains of the schoolhouse site is a
triangular open space at the intersection
of Grafton, Homer, and Water Streets.
WINCHESTER STREET
WOODWARD STREET
•Barbara Thibault
Sections of the street are referred to
before 1711 at which time it was formally
bounded by the Town Highway
Committee.
383 Winchester Street
1831 A. Winchester, Esquire
1 855 J. A. Veasie, broker
1886 F. Gordon Dexter
This house was probably built in the first
quarter of the nineteenth century.
Typical of farmhouse construction,
architectural features are combined. It is
Colonial in its south-facing orientation
and Federal in its symmetrical facade
and sparse detail of corner boards and
blocks.
Amasa Winchester, Junior, inherited
his father's homestead and 289 acres.
The land was on both sides of
Winchester Street stretching south from
Boylston Street to Dedham Street. This
house was one of several buildings that
Winchester sold in 1 851 to Mr. Veasie of
Boston. By 1 882 Mr. Dexter owned the
house with 76 acres.
Originally a section of the Sherborn
Road, renewed in 1726 and upgraded
in 1852.
79 Woodward Street
circa 1843
1855 David Fogg
1907 Mrs. Elizabeth Fogg
Though the house has been sided with
aluminum, it appears to have early
nineteenth century architectural
features: moulded window trim, corner
boards, and a central entrance with a
shelf and fluted pilasters.
David Fogg and his wife Elizabeth
Dana Fogg bought one acre of land
from Elijah Woodward in 1843 with the
condition that a house be built there at
their expense within one year. Their
daughter, Miss Fannie Fogg, was a
schoolteacher in the Newton Public
Schools until she was injured in a train
accident while travelling to visit a
brother in Ohio. Though a semi-invalid,
she remained in her parents' home until
her death in 1 932 aged 101 years.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Unpublished Sources
Jackson Homestead: Manuscript
collection,
Middlesex County: Records of the Court
of Common Pleas
and of thie Court of
General Sessions.
Registry of Deeds.
Registry of Probate.
Newton: Town and City archives,
particularly Town Meeting
Records, Engineering Reports
and Plans, Tax Lists, Assessors
Block Plans.
First Church m Newton: Parish Records.
Architecture
Blumenson, John. Identifying American
Architecture. Nashville, AASLH, 1977.
Cummings, Abott Lowell. Tlie Framed
l-louses of ivlassachusetts Bay,
1625-1727. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1979.
Walker, Lester. American Stielter
Woodstock, N.Y.: Overbrook Press,
1981.
Biography and Genealogy
Bartlett, T. Gardner. Simon Stone
Genealogy. Boston, 1926.
Bond, Henry. Genealogies and History
of Watertown. Boston: Little, Brown,
1855.
Dictionary of American Biography.
Greenwood, Frederick. Greenwood
Genealogy 1 154-1914. New York: Lyons
Genealogical Co. 1914.
Hammond, Frederick Stam. History and
Genealogy of tfie Hammond Families in
America 1000-1902, vol. 2. Oneida,
N.Y, 1904.
The New England Historical
Genealogical Society Register.
Ritter, Priscillaand Fleishman, Thelma,
eds. Newton, Ivlassachusetts,
1679- 1 779. A Biographical Directory.
Boston: NEHGS, 1982.
Savage, James. Genealogical
Dictionary of the First Settlers of New
England. Baltimore, 1965.
Ward, Andrew Henshaw. Ward Family:
Descendants of William Ward who
settled in Sudbury Mass. in 1659.
Boston, 1851 .
General
Davis, Seth. An Appeal to the Citizens of
Newton. 1847.
Easterbrook, H. H., comp. A History of
the Fire Department of Newton,
Massachusetts. Newton Veterans
Firemen's Association, 1897.
Hill, Don Gleason, ed. The Early
Records of the Town of Dedham,
Massachusetts 1636-1659.
History of the Introduction of Pure Water
to the City of Boston with a description of
the Cochituate Waterworks, compiled by
a member of the Board, 1848.
Jackson, Francis. A History of the Early
Settlement of Newton, County of
Middlesex. Massachusetts from 1639 to
1800 with a Genealogical Register of its
Inhabitants pnor to 1800. Boston, 1854.
Lee, Mary A. History of the Chestnut Hill
Chapel. The History Committee of the
First Church in Chestnut Hill. 1931 .
Newton Directories from 1868.
The Records of the Town of Cambridge
(formerly Newtowne), 1630-1703.
Cambridge, 1901 .
64
The Register Book of Lands and Houses
in the "New Towne" and the Town of
Cambridge with the Records of the
Proprietors of the Common Lands,
1635-1829. Cambridge, 1896,
Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., ed. Records of
the Governor and Company of ttie
t[/lassacfiusetts Bay. Boston, 1854.
Smith, Francis S, A History of Newton
Town and City from its Earliest
Settlement to ttie Present Time
1630-1880. Boston, 1880.
Sweetser, M. F. King's Handbook of
Newton. t\/lassacTiusetts. Boston: Moses
King Corporation, 1 889.
United States Department of
Agriculture. Soil Survey of Middlesex,
Massachusetts, 1 924.
Maps and Plans
Plan of Newton taken by Jeremy
Burnap, 1714 ... and revised by
Alexander Shepard, Jr. , 1 772.
Map of the Town of Newton, Mass.,
surveyed by E. F Woodward and W.F
Ward, 1831 .
Map of the Town of Newton as
surveyed by E. R Woodward and W. F
Ward, November, 1 831 , revised and
corrected by James B. Blake, 1 848.
Plan of Newton, tfie outline of which
IS taken from the survey of Elijah F
Woodward and William F Ward of 1831
so varied as to show the houses of the
original settlers ... by Francis Jackson,
1854.*
Map of the Town of Newton,
Middlesex County, Mass., surveyed by
order of the Town by H. F. Walling, 1855
Atlas of the City of Newton,
Mass. ... published by F W. Beers and
Co., 1874.
Atlas of the City of Newton,
Middlesex County, Massachusetts, by
G. M. Hopkins, 1874.
Atlas of the City of Newton, Mass.
compiled by J. B. Beers and Company,
1886,
Atlases of the City of Newton,
Massachusetts, by George W. and
Walters. Bromley, 1895, 1907, 1917.
Atlas of the City of Newton,
Massachusetts, by Rowland H. Barnes
and Henry F Beal, 1929.
Street Map of Newton, 1 970.
*lnformation taken from this plan
marked * .
Map of the City of Boston and its
environs surveyed and drawn by D. J
Lake, 1866.
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